The Orlando Magic face many question marks at the season's midway point

Orlando Sentinel's Josh Robbins speaks with FOX35 about the Orlando Magic and optimism and realism.

Orlando Sentinel's Josh Robbins speaks with FOX35 about the Orlando Magic and optimism and realism.

Josh Robbins, Orlando Sentinel

Predicting how a professional sports team will fare in the second half of its season can be a dangerous endeavor. So many variables can come into play. Will anyone suffer injuries? When will injured players return? Will the team make trades? Will young players grow or will they regress?

The Orlando Magic will confront all of those questions during the second half of their season, which will begin Tuesday night against the Booklyn Nets in Brooklyn.

The Magic own an 11-30 record, the second-worst record in the NBA and tied for the third-worst record in franchise history midway through a season.

"Each and every game, we're going to hold each other accountable," forward Tobias Harris said. "Whoever's on that floor is going to hold the next guy accountable for doing his part and doing his job. So that's just only going to make us a better team."

And, yet, as difficult as it may be to believe, things might get even worse. Recent history shows that. The Magic held a 14-27 record at the midway point of last season, but the team finished 6-35 the rest of the way, as two key trades, injuries and a reluctance to rush injured players back eroded the product on the court.

The Magic might face the same obstacles again.

This season's trade deadline looms on Feb. 20, and the Magic will have choices to make.

Power forward Glen Davis and point guard Jameer Nelson seem like potential trade candidates because the Magic have younger players at those positions who would benefit from larger roles and increased playing time.

Also, the 2014 NBA Draft is thought to be one of the strongest drafts in years at its very top, and team officials could want to enhance the chances of winning a top pick in the draft lottery.

Jettisoning Davis or Nelson in trades probably would make the Magic worse in the short-run.

But neither of them would bring back a high pick in the upcoming draft, because future first-round draft picks — especially in a draft thought to be as strong as 2014's draft is expected to be — are some of the league's most coveted assets.

Afflalo has been the Magic's best, most consistent player this season and likely is their most improved player. At least several head coaches around the league regard him as a deserving All-Star Game candidate.

But Magic officials aren't looking to trade Afflalo, and other teams haven't made offers strong enough to make the Magic reconsider that position. Given that Afflalo is under contract for the 2014-15 season at a reasonable price of $7.5 million (and a player option for the 2015-16 season at the same salary), the Magic have no need to trade him.

Afflalo is averaging a team-high 20.9 points per game, but as good as he has been, he might not be the Magic's most valuable player.

Center Nik Vucevic arguably is the team's MVP. Currently sidelined by his second concussion since March 19, 2013, the Magic have missed his presence. The team has posted a 1-12 record in games he's missed, and has been outscored in the paint by an average of 8.5 points in those games.

Team officials haven't disclosed how far along Vucevic is in the NBA's return-to-play concussion process, and it's unclear when he'll return to the court.

The Magic finished the first half of their season ranked 18th in the league in defensive efficiency and 26th in offensive efficiency. Having Vucevic back would help in both areas.

"We've had some hiccups because of injuries and things of that nature," coach Jacque Vaughn said. "But overall I think guys have gotten better and we're trying to play the right way, and that's playing together."

jbrobbins@tribune.com. Read his blog at OrlandoSentinel.com/magicblog and follow him on Twitter at @JoshuaBRobbins.